1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus of a copying machine, printer or the like using an electrophotographic system or an electrostatic recording system, particularly to an image forming apparatus having a separation member contacting with an image bearing body.
2. Related Background Art
FIG. 12 shows the above image forming apparatus. That is, FIG. 12 is a schematic block diagram of a conventional image forming apparatus. In FIG. 12, symbol (reference numeral) 1 denotes an image bearing body (amorphous silicon) for forming an electrostatic latent image, 2 denotes a primary charging device for electrifying the surface of the image bearing body 1, 3 denotes a laser beam for forming an electrostatic latent image on the image bearing body 1 by irradiating the image bearing body 1, 4 denotes a developing device for forming a toner image on the image bearing body 1 by applying a voltage between a developing sleeve 4a and the image bearing body 1 and developing an electrostatic latent image, 10 denotes a pre-transfer charging device for uniforming the charge of a toner image formed on the image bearing body 1, 8 denotes a transfer charging device for transferring a toner image formed on the image bearing body 1 to a transfer material 9, 5 and 6 denote first and second separation charging devices for separating the transfer material 9 from the image bearing body 1, 7 denotes a separation claw for separating the transfer material 9 which cannot be separated by the first separation charging device 5 and second separation charging device 6, 11 denotes a cleaning device for removing the toner (residual toner after transferring) with remains on the image bearing body 1 and is not transferred to the transfer material 9, and 12 denotes a semiconductor laser for emitting the laser beam 3 modulated by a image signal. The laser beam 3 is reflected by a rotational polygon mirror 14 to raster-scan the image bearing body 1 through a focusing lens 16 and a reflecting mirror 17.
Thus, an image forming apparatus having the above configuration makes it possible to obtain an image formed object by applying the image forming process including charging, optical image exposure, and development to the image bearing body 1 to form an image and then transferring the image to the transfer material 9, and fixing the transferred image in the transfer material 9.
In the case of the above conventional image forming apparatus, it is possible to securely separate the transfer material 9 from the image bearing body 1 by the separation claw 7 and thereby, preferable paper conveying causing no paper jam is realized. However, there are problems that residual toner attaches to the separation claw 7 and coheres and then, the cohered toner drips onto the transfer material 9 (hereafter referred to as dripping) and contaminates the image on the transfer material 9. FIG. 13 schematically shows the dripping state.